A crucial safety system, the "core catcher," was delivered from Russia to the construction site of Unit 3 at Egypt's first nuclear power plant, El-Dabaa. It is scheduled to be installed this fall, according to the statement from Atomstroyexport, the engineering division of the Rosatom State Corporation.
"On July 1, 2024, the core catcher was delivered to the construction site of the El-Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant for Unit 3," the statement said.
The ship carrying the core catcher components left the port of the Russian city of Novorossiysk for the El-Dabaa construction site at the end of June. The total weight of the shipment was over 480 tonnes, with the assembled core catcher weighing about 150 tonnes.
"With the support of the Egyptian Nuclear Power Plants Authority, we delivered the core catcher to the site ahead of schedule. In October, we will face the task of installing it on Unit 3," said Alexey Kononenko, Vice President of Atomstroyexport and project director for the El-Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant, as quoted in the statement.
The El-Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant is located in the Matrouh region on the Mediterranean coast, 350 kilometers from Cairo. The plant will consist of four power units with Russian VVER-1200 reactors, classified as "3+" generation, meeting the highest international standards for efficiency and safety. The total installed electrical capacity of the plant will be close to 4.8 gigawatts. Rosatom's Engineering Division is the general designer and contractor for the El-Dabaa project, marking Rosatom’s first nuclear plant construction in Africa.
Construction of Units 1 and 2 of the El-Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant began in 2022, with the first concrete being poured for both units four months apart—a record in the global nuclear industry. Construction of Unit 3 began in 2023, and work on Unit 4 started in January 2024.